African migration is mainly by land, not by sea, and the vast majority of African migrants' destinations are not Europe or North America, but African countries, according to the first report on African migration, released on Thursday 15 October by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the African Union Commission.
This report, Challenging the Narrative, attempts to deconstruct misconceptions. It was presented at a virtual conference.
It shows that 94% of African migration across the oceans is a regular occurrence. It also notes that Africans account for no more than 14% of all migrants worldwide, while more than 40% come from Asia and 24% from Europe.
In 2019, Africa was the youngest continent for international migrants, with a median age of 30.9 years. According to the African Union, intra-African mobility figures have never been higher, with international migration in Africa increasing from 13.3 million to 25.4 million migrants between 2008 and 2017.
According to IOM's Global Migration Data Analysis Centre, 80% of Africans, when asked about their migration in 2017, said they had no interest in leaving the continent or settling there permanently.
Link to the report: https://bit.ly/34Wrq16 (Original version by Aminata Niang)